Chapter 26
Previous Chapter * Twin Points Hotel, Grove City, California * Monday, April 13, 201X, 12:57 PM PST Worth slashed a large "X" onto the door, then kicked it down. It fell with slam, blowing up a cloud of dust into the room. As soon as he stepped in, he spied the magician girl on the other side of the room, about to exit. "There it is!" He lowered his stance to start his dash, but then he paused when the magician spoke. "Erif Worra!" The magician imitated the actions of pulling back an invisible bow, and let go of the drawstring. Then, an arrow with a flaming tip materialized and shot directly at Worth with great speed. Worth watched the incoming missile carefully and caught the arrow while it was still in flight, mere inches from his chest. "It was a nice tr—" When he looked up, he saw the feet of the magician already fleeing the room. Then, Worth smelled it. He looked around. He was in the kitchen area of the old hotel. On the sides of the wall were many rows of ovens. They were all opened, and all blowing gas into the kitchen. Worth looked back at the flaming arrow still in his hand. "That little—" * * * A loud, fiery explosion rocked the entire floor, almost knocking Silvia off her feet. Silvia panted heavily, trying to keep distance from Worth. Seeing as her cage trap had failed, she had to move fast, assuming everything was in place. Worth wasn't down; Silvia could still feel his truculent aura. "Han, are you ready?" * * * A dazed Worth was leaning on the wall with his arm, his other hand holding a particularly bad wound on his side. The concussive blast from the ovens had knocked him out for a few seconds. Fire had damaged his clothing, and he suffered from some burns mostly on his arms. He slowly made his way down the hallway past the kitchen. It was no longer a duel for fun; Worth wanted revenge. At the very end of the hallway, he saw that the hotel had an old-fashioned laundry chute. It was definitely where the magician had gone. He opened the door to the chute and slid down, hissing at the pain. After a steep vertical fall, the small tunnel opened up from the middle of the wall. Instead of a basket of clothes to cushion his fall, Worth instead fell onto cold concrete. Blinking away the stars from his eyes, he took a moment to collect himself and steady his breathing. Suddenly, his eyes widened. He wasn't alone in this room. He looked up and saw a figure that was sitting cross-legged on the other side, wearing a motorcycle helmet. It wasn't the magician. Worth looked at the door directly behind the figure, and then back at him. "Move. It's in Worth's way," said Worth. The figure stood up slowly, and got into a fighting stance. "You have something that doesn't belong to you," said the figure, his voice muffled by a motorcycle helmet. "You're gonna have to give that back." Worth scoffed, not about to let something like this stop him from getting to the magician. Then, large translucent hands emerged from behind the figure's back. Some formed into fists; others open-palm. They slowly came around the person like snakes, completely walling off Worth. Worth instinctively took a step back and reached for the handle of his sword. "Worth doesn't have time for this." * * * This was the endgame for Silvia's plan. Upon hearing that the Masamune sword had been stolen from a museum by someone with special abilities, Silvia deduced that AX Corp was the next likely stop. After Fenix calculated the most probably path Worth would take, he found a condemned building set to be demolished in the next few months. It was the perfect site as the neighborhoods would mostly be empty around that hour. Silvia baited Worth into fighting her, and set turned the entire building into her trap. Each and every floor had some kind of trap to disarm Worth. If each and every trap had failed, Plan B was having a weakened Worth fight Han. Silvia had placed him at the absolute bottom floor of the building, where no onlookers could see. The concrete basement was small and narrow, preventing Worth from escaping without first going through Han. And Han shouldn't lose. Worth was injured from the explosion; he won't pull off as many high-speed attacks anymore. Worth also wouldn't be able to dodge anywhere in such a small room. Most importantly, the diminutiveness of the room gave Han a great advantage. One of Han's biggest weaknesses was how thin his defenses were when fighting in the open. As he cannot generate a large number of hands at a time, his openings increase as his psychic hands travel further and further away. In the room Han was in now, that weakness was negated. And that was what was happening right now. Han shot a couple jabs forward, just to see how Worth would interact. Worth narrowly avoided the first, but the second one caught him at an angle and he was knocked a foot back. Growling in frustration, Worth started dashing towards the left, sword drawn. A couple fists from the right flew around to intercept him, but were too slow. Worth was getting close, but then an open palm directly ahead stopped Worth from advancing. Worth slashed at it once, then twice, disintegrating the hand. While his guard was dropped from the second slash, another hand flew right into Worth, blowing him all the way back to the back wall. Breathing heavily, Worth dashed straight towards Han, but then he leapt straight up with a flip to avoid the incoming fist. Worth turned his body so his legs were standing on the ceiling like a bat, then dropped straight down onto Han. It was futile; two hands flew up and cupped Worth, catching him like a falling soccer ball, and he was thrown to the back wall again. Each time Worth attempted a new angle of approach, the density of the hands smothered each and every one of Worth's attacks. He even attempted to fire beams of black light, but the hands would just come up in front of Han and block them. Worth kneeled down from his injuries, using the sword's sheath to prop him up. Rage filled his body, but also a sense of fear. Fear that he wouldn't have his duel with the magician. He tried lifting his sword, but he felt Masamune grow heavier in his hand. He tried again, but now he felt the sword trying to get back into the sheath. "No!" Worth gripped tightly, but the sword's will was too strong. Worth's fingers slipped, and the sword flew from his hands, did a flip in the air, and dropped straight down into the wooden sheath. "NO!" Worth tried tugging the sword out, but it would not budge. He even tried the incantation: "Honjo Masamune, cut my enemies down!" Despite Worth's best efforts, he was unable to draw Masamune out again. Han remained silent, observing the scene. "It seems like your best weapon left you," he said. "It's over now." Worth shot back an intense glare. "Worth doesn't need the sword! Worth can still defeat it!" He angrily flung the sword off to the corner, and then he began to run towards Han while growling angrily. A blockade of hands were thrown up, stopping Worth dead in his tracks. Worth ruthlessly swiped at the hands like an angry grizzly, but it didn't help him at all. Han quickly manipulated the hands so a pair of them were on either side of Worth. With a loud clap, the hands simultaneously slammed into Worth. When the hands dematerialized, and Worth slumped to the ground, knocked out. They won! "Silvia! He's beat!" Silvia opened the door behind Han, and patted his shoulder. "Looks like... he was Worth-less!" said Silvia. Han gave her a look through the helmet, and shook his head. Silvia stepped past, hopefully embarrassed but probably unfazed, towards Worth. Han went to the corner retrieve the sword. "Eitgoh mih!" Ropes appeared and constricted around Worth's limbs. "We'll leave him for the police. The explosion is sure to get their attention," said Silvia. "I wonder why the sword went back into the sheath," said Han with Masamune in his hands. He tried to unsheathe the sword himself, but it wouldn't budge. "What did he say? Honjo Masumane, cut my enemies down!?" Han pulled at the handle with all his might, but the sword remained tightly in its sheath. "I know a little about this sword," explained Silvia. "You have to be spiritually and mentally pure in order to wield it. Worth no longer was pure, and thus Masamune no longer listened to him." "So basically, your plan was to mess him up enough so his mind wasn't pure anymore?" Silvia was grinning, and Han could tell she was winking at him behind her mask. "C'mon, let's go." They made their way up to the ground floor, while Han's psychic hands carrying Worth. They left the bounded Worth, who was still out cold, in the middle of the main lobby area, and then the two quickly made their way towards the back of the building. They opened the back door, which led to a tight alleyway, the other side of which was the backside of another large building. Silvia stepped towards a large mound of trash bags, her steps splashing dirty water from the dank cobblestone floor. While Han was on lookout, Silvia was tossing aside the bags to reveal her motorcycle hidden underneath. "Hey, is that someone?" Han had his telepathic link set up again, and he was peering at the end of the alleyway on his left. "Never mind them Han, let's get this sword back to the museum." They got onto the the motorcycle, and they sped off towards the opposite side of the alleyway. * * * * Grove City Museum of History and Art, Grove City, California * Monday, April 13, 201X, 1:24PM PST Tires squealed as Silvia slowed the motorcycle down. Parked on the corner street, she left Han alone to keep an eye on the bike while she walked up the museum steps to the front door. Most of the police and emergency response crew were already gone, but there was still a small gathering of the museum employees. There was also a small news crew there, who were busy interviewing the staff. Everyone paused when they saw Silvia, still in her magician's suit, walk in. "May I ask who is the curator?" asked Silvia in a booming voice. Everyone stared at her, wide-eyed. Some of them looked like they were about to object, but then a curly-haired slender woman walked confidently up to Silvia. "I am this museum's curator," said the woman. She looked at the sword that Silvia was carrying. "I-Is that, could it be? The stolen Honjo Masamune?" Silvia gave the curator a look, then held out the sword to the lady, who took it and gripped it tightly to her own body. "No need to thank me, but I must be going now," said Silvia. "Wait!" There was a cry of protest, mainly from the news crew. "How did you get it back from that maniac?!" Silvia reached into her jacket pocket and grabbed a couple of marble-sized pellets. She smiled. "I'm sorry, but a magician never reveals anything." She dropped the pellets onto the ground, and they instantly burst into clouds of smoke the colors of a sunset. Red, orange, and purple filled the room. By the time the multicolored smoke cleared, the magician had disappeared. * * * * Maple Tea Café, Grove City, California * Monday, April 13, 201X, 1:34PM PST "...And that's when I left them," said Silvia to Han. They had just gotten back to the cafe from the museum, and Silvia just finished telling Han about her dramatic exit. There was still a large crowd inside, but they were all gossiping about the events today rather than the latest K-Pop song. "So that's it? We're all done then, huh?" "Yeah..." Silvia trailed off, her features frowning. "What is it?" asked Han. "That lady," said Silvia, referring to the museum curator. "I had a weird feeling about her." She paused in thought, but then shook her head. "But it'll probably come to me." Silvia smiled Han. "So don't tell me you didn't have fun." Han scoffed, not meeting her eyes. Of course he did like ''it, but it was still an anxious experience for him overall. Making sure their tracks were covered was always stressful. "Well definitely keep in touch," said Silvia. Han mumbled back in awkward agreement. "You still have my number, you can call me if you need me, alright?" She turned around and was about to put on her helmet, but then she felt Han's hand on her shoulder. ''"Wait. You promised you were going to tell me more." She heard his voice in her head. "What is this team you're on?" Han could hear her sigh in her mind, and then he heard her say, "The FBI. Sort of. It's off the books. I was hired basically straight after college, and I've been with them for almost 6 years." Han was nodding, absorbing all this information. "I don't want to involve you," she continued. "It might be– No, it will be dangerous. You might not see me for a while, just letting you know. But now that I know you're both here, you and Nick." Silvia gave him a look of gratitude. Then in her actual voice, she said, "If I ever need guidance, help, or just someone to talk to, I'll know who to call." Next Chapter